Lots of Pictures

Here are some pictures of the children from the last few months:

This is love.

One of the suckers is actually Jade's. She gave it to Bristol so she could have a taste, and then Bristol didn't want to return it.

Poor Jade. In July, we had her tested for nut allergies, and she is allergic to pecans and walnuts. They didn't test for hazelnuts, but clearly she is allergic to those too. On this day, I was toasting hazelnuts and she was holding one. She said she didn't eat any and I am pretty sure she didn't, but she must have touched her face or something. It's not really clear in this picture, but she has red welts on her face (especially around her eyes) and her eyes are watering.

Bristol loves this backpack; sometimes she and Jade fight over it.

The camera lens was dirty, thus the hazy quality of this photo.

Bristol loves her toothbrush but accomplishes very little actual teethbrushing.

This is what we keep in our pantry.

Jade going to preschool.

Brooke is getting to be such a good reader. We are so proud of her. Today she told me she loves reading.

I think that Bristol had to skip one her naps that day for some reason, and she fell asleep at dinnertime.

Catch-up

It seems like every post I start saying that it's been a while since I last posted, but this time that isn't the case. I actually wrote an entry last Monday. However, it's just me complaining about having lived in Yuma for the last two years (in case you haven't read it). I am pretty sure that most of the people who read my blog (I have no idea who or how many) are more interested in the children and what they are doing rather than listening to my complaints. So in that case, it has been a little while since I posted about that so here you go:

Halloween

Brooke was a princess, and Jade was a mermaid. Bristol was a witch. I decided that I was not going to buy any costumes this year; we were just going to use what we have. That worked out pretty good. I spent about $13 to buy a few accessories for their costumes, and I think I saved about $50 by not buying all new ones.

Like my smile in this picture? I wasn't quite ready when Trent took it.

Bristol's First Birthday

When Bristol was six months old, I said that her first six months went by quickly, but these last six months went by even faster. I can't believe that she is already one year old!

I made gumpaste flowers for the cake. I had never made gumpaste decorations before, and I wanted to try them because I liked the way they look. While cake decorating from piping frosting can certainly look good, I have to say that I really like the gumpaste. It's faster, cleaner-looking and way less of a mess. Well, it does take some time for the flowers to dry (a day or two), but actually creating them was pretty quick.

Some of the things that she can do now are:

*walk really well

*climb off the bed or couch herself

*eat with a spoon and drink from a cup pretty good (In fact, everytime she sees us getting a drink at the water cooler, she hurries over and we give her the cup with a little water in it.)

*wave hello

*point at things

Some of Bristol's likes are:

*water -- She loves taking a bath and is constantly sticking her face in it the water to get a drink, despite my protest.

*playing with her sisters

*going down the slide that she got for her birthday

*books -- She pulls them out of the bookshelf a lot and likes to look at them.

*putting things around her neck -- She is always finding things to put around her neck (not all the way around, just draped from one shoulder, around the back of her neck, to her other shoulder). This one concerns me a little because she tries to use jumpropes, ties, cords (even cords that are attached to things like lamps), anything pretty much. The strangulation risk there concerns me so I keep a close eye on her when she is doing that.

*going outside -- She always tries to escape when someone is going out. Since the weather has cooled, we can definitely spend a lot more time outside, though.

*people -- She isn't afraid to go up to others and smile at them.

*car keys -- the real ones, toy keys are not an adequate substitute

Some of her dislikes are:

*her carseat or for that matter, being restrained in any way

*having things taken away from her -- No child likes this, but she throws a big fit, crying on and on when we have to take something from her.

Bristol has been so fun to have in our home. The girls like playing with her most of the time, and she and Jade are starting to play together when Brooke is at school. She is a pretty happy girl as long as she is well-rested and fed. I have to say that I am pretty happy too when she gets her sleep because she sleeps for about eleven hours at night and for about three to four hours during the day (split between two naps).

Oh yeah, noticeably absent from her pictures, at least to me, is her hair. She is our Miss Baldy, but she has been working on her teeth. Bristol has her eighth tooth coming up now.

Two Years, Ugh

Well, as of yesterday, we have been here in Yuma for two years, which is exactly two years more than I wanted to be here. So why am I here? I often wonder if it would have been better to have just stayed in Idaho and held on until the economy improved. Now it seems like we will never get back. Over the next couple of years, Idaho is projected to be the #1 state for job growth (or something like that) so maybe there is some promise in that.

It's not that I hate Yuma completely, though I certainly don't love it. Rather, it's that we spend most holidays and birthdays with just Trent, the children and myself. Holiday meals become a lot more work (for me) in that situation, and it's kind of lonely. Visiting family is now quite an ordeal and a sacrifice. Do we want to spend a whole bunch of money on plane tickets or sit in the car for two days? I used to think that it was a long drive from Boise to Denver, but now I would gladly do that. With Brooke in school, our opportunities for visiting are even more limited. It's also that we have a house in Idaho that we don't even get to enjoy, but instead someone else does, paying us substantially less than our mortgage payment. Meanwhile we get to live in a rental here, which is a house I really don't like. When we first moved here, I said that the house was pretty nice, but I was soon cured of that thinking upon discovering a host of problems with the home, like a $350 power bill in the summer months just to keep the house at 80+ degrees. I could go on and on about the house. Speaking of the summer, we spend most of it indoors with the blinds closed (blinds open just means an even hotter house). So for the weeks that Brooke is out of school, we are stuck in a hot house a lot -- not fun.

There are lots more things that I could say about why I don't like being here, but I don't want to spend all night at the computer. It just saddens me that we are here, and I am not so sure that it has really improved our lives in any way that is important. Trent's job has given us more financial rewards than we anticipated, but I am unconvinced that that is a worthy trade-off. I do appreciate that we have good, nice people in our ward. I am glad that we at least have that. All in all, I would rather be in a less than stellar city with a great ward than be in an awesome city but have a terrible ward. However, not to marginalize the people we know here, I also really liked the people in our previous ward and the place in which we lived.

So I guess this post is just one big lament. I do recognize the good things we have in our life, like that Trent has a job, our children, the gospel, etc. I know that things could be a lot worse, as they are for some people. I am just hoping and praying that we can again enjoy all those things back home (and that it can be soon). I certainly do appreciate a little bit more the things we had to leave. Although, I did appreciate them before we moved -- that's why I didn't want to leave!

Currently

It's 10pm, and I am sitting here with this little thing. She should be asleep, but she decided to take a nap this afternoon and wouldn't awaken until 6:30. So why fight it if she just isn't tired yet? At least she isn't the one that has to go to school at 8am tomorrow.

Still way too hot

Well, I thought that it was getting cooler. Last week was quite pleasant with a few days in the 90's, but today it was 107. The forecast for Sunday is 110. I am really jealous whenever I read blogs or whatever on the internet and everyone seems to be celebrating fall and I am still hesitant to use the oven because it makes the house even hotter.

Recent Pics

I know that there are some family members that want to see some recent pictures of the children (I know this because they told me so). Here are three pictures, one of each them. I will post more soon. I really will, but I am only doing three for now. I am trying to go to bed earlier nowadays, and it is getting late so this is all that I have time for. Plus I am having to listen to Trent snoring because he fell asleep on the couch, and the sound is almost intolerable. I tried waking him but was unsuccessful.

Where is Bristol's hair?

Jade just before dance class.

Brooke and her big smile.

I'm melting...

So I am finally starting to post again. The summer went by pretty fast until we came back to Yuma, now it is lasting forever it seems. That's probably because of the horrible heat here. This is the forecast (according to weather.com) for the next five days, starting with tomorrow: 116, 115, 110, 108, 105. Oh yeah, and right now it is about 111. The house we are renting does not get very cool either. It often gets up to 85 even though I set the thermostat at 76. I set it this low (that's low for here) because I know that it is inaccurate. I guess the people who have lived in Yuma for a long time are just used to the heat or don't know any different, but I can't stand it. Sometimes I get really worried that we are going to live here for a long time, which is totally possible. I don't think that I would handle that too well. So that's my 2010 complaint about Yuma's weather.

After composing this, I realized that the last sentence makes it sound like I am going to have a complaint about this every year. Hopefully, though, we won't live here a long time (maybe move to a place with a less harsh climate) or I will just learn to deal with it and not complain about it. (I am hoping for the former.)

What have we been doing?

Well, not posting on the blog obviously. This post might be kind of short and without any pictures. But then it might not be; it just depends what I end up saying:) I'll add some pictures tomorrow or very soon anyway. I just wanted to finally post something since I seem to be getting worse and worse about doing it. To me that is kind of sad because all of my family and all of Trent's family live far away from us and this is the easiest way for them to see the kids and know what we are doing.

So what is going on with us? Tomorrow Brooke graduates from kindergarten. I can't believe that this year is already over! There were times when we weren't sure if Brooke was going to make it to this day, but somehow she did...just kidding. Brooke has done great in kindergarten and loved it too! She has done really well learning to read, add and subtract. Since the schools here seem to focus mainly on math and reading, we are going to be doing some art and science projects over the summer.

Jade has really become quite the interesting child. She is a great helper. She likes to unload the dishwasher and sometimes even does it of her own initiative, and she always likes to help with Bristol, changing diapers, feeding her, etc. I don't think that this "help" is always pleasant for Bristol, though. Jade also really loves riding her tricycle. Since there is a fairly large fenced and gated concrete area in front of our house, she often goes out there and rides her tricycle or pushes her dolls around in the stroller, pretending to go to Target. (I keep the front door open so I can keep an eye on her while I do my chores and whatnot.) So while she seems like she is growing-up and becoming more independent, there is another side to her that sometimes drives me crazy -- her baby side. Jade wants me to hold her a lot, even when I am holding Bristol. She also steals Bristol's pacifiers and then cries and cries when we take it away. Often times she wants to eat, or at least taste, the baby food. I don't know if she is just jealous of Bristol or misses being the baby or what. Since Bristol is now over seven months old, one would think that Jade would be used to not being the baby anymore.

Bristol is becoming very active, but she has always been something of a squirmy baby. When she was born, the nurse at the hospital commented that she was a very wiggly baby. She is almost crawling now. She can get up on her hands and knees but just hasn't quite coordinated moving her arms and legs at the right times. She can still get around by rolling and kind of scooting around with her arms. Bristol is a pretty good baby overall. She is pretty much sleeping through the night and takes good naps, too. I think that she has her first tooth coming in, which has made her a little bit crabby, but normally, she is pretty happy. She seems to like Brooke and Jade most of the time. She is always interested in what they are doing. They seem to really like her as well. Brooke frequently says that Bristol is so adorable.

Trent is going to be working in Tucson for six weeks this summer. We will be joining him which is very exciting to me. We get to stay in a hotel or condo or something that his work is paying for. Tucson is much bigger than Yuma, and it has a zoo, real malls (where all the stores are inside one big building), and cooler summer weather. It's still hot, of course, but not Yuma hot. Plus, I hear it gets a lot more rain in the summer. So I guess this post did end up being fairly lengthy. Now I just need to post some pictures...

Six Months

Bristol is now six months old (as of April 20), and I really cannot believe it! It just does not seem like it's been that long since she was born. That means she will be one in less than six months, but these next six months will probably seem to pass more slowly since we will be trying to survive the horrible summer heat. And the summer does seem to last nearly six months in Yuma. Anyway, here is a six month picture of Bristol. Brooke made her a little bed with petals while we were playing in the backyard.

Don't be fooled by Jade's cuteness in this picture; she has done her fair share of naughty things lately. I'll get to that in another post. She still is cute, though.

Brooke is funny. I like how she wears her life jacket even though there is less than six inches of water in the pool.

Jade

Jade will be three in May, and it seems like we haven't really had to deal with her and the "terrible two's" until now (but I don't think that it's too bad). She has started to throw tantrums where she cries and cries for like fifteen minutes or so when she gets mad for whatever reason. Those are kind of annoying, but she has been saying some pretty funny (though sassy) things lately. In the car a few days ago she told me something to the effect of, "You're not the boss. I'm the boss, and I'm going to fire you." Being fired for a day or two actually sounds kind of appealling. The only problem is that Trent is out of town, and I don't think that Jade or Brooke could adequately take over being "mom" for a day. Then yesterday, right as we were sitting down to eat dinner, Brooke commented on Jade's dress-up outfit saying, "Jade, you look so cute and beautiful" to which Jade responded, "I am so beautiful. Now leave me alone." It's so amusing to hear some of these things that she has come-up with lately!

Christmas

Well, I guess that it has been almost a month since Christmas, but I still wanted to post some pictures from our Christmas. This year we decided not to buy a lot because our kids already have way too many toys in my opinion. So instead we set a small budget for each child and each other and the rest of the present was that we went to Disneyland.

I made stuffed beef tenderloin (filet mignon) for our Christmas dinner. It was pretty good, but it's also pretty expensive meat. I know some of the pieces look very pink, but that meat is supposed to be kind of rare.

I made triple chocolate mousse cake for dessert. It was really yummy and actually not very difficult to make -- a lot easier than one would probably think.

Jade with her Pucci Puppy; Brooke has a similar one and didn't like to share it with Jade.

Brooke's helping Bristol open her gifts.

A little Christmas morning meltdown.

Brooke was very tired from Christmas and fell asleep on the floor around 5 pm -- very unlike her.

Pictures

Alright, here is a cute picture of Bristol smiling. She smiles a lot now. She seems to be pretty social. She'll often start staring at someone and then smile at them.


Jade wanted me to take some pictures of her again; apparently she is mentally preparing...And then it's the many faces of Jade:

Brooke's little structure made from some cards that go to a Winnie the Pooh game.